This recording was
originally released some fifteen years
ago, and was considered good enough
to win two "Grammies" in 1989,
for best choral performance and best
classical recording. How does it match
up today, particularly as so many other
competitive versions have since arrived
– chiefly those conducted by Rattle,
Giulini, Brabbins and, most notably,
Hickox?

The answer is very
well indeed. The soloists are superb
– there is no-one to beat Anthony Rolfe
Johnson Britten’s music amongst living
tenors, as his many fine recordings
of the composer’s songs and choral works
will confirm. Lorna Haywood sings with
passion and commitment, and, despite
being a fervent admirer of Vishnevskaya,
I preferred Haywood to the Russian soprano’s
performance on Britten’s own Decca version.
The great Galina’s singing is sometimes
hard to enjoy – that huge vibrato and
the often impure tone don’t quite do
it for me in Britten’s music. Haywood
is intensely dramatic, but also sings
with a clarity that enables the actual
notes to be heard accurately – an important
consideration!

But the real revelation
for me amongst the soloists was Benjamin
Luxon; he sings with tremendous power,
and I have never heard "Be slowly
lifted up" sound more chilling
than this. The recording captures the
thrilling edge to his voice perfectly.

The Atlanta Chorus
is superb, with particularly resounding
tenor and bass sections. The strangely
named Atlanta Boy Choir sing with bright,
focused sound, and the recording creates
real perspective, that sense of space
between them and the rest of the ensemble
totally convincing.

The only area where
this issue is narrowly inferior to those
of Britten and Hickox is in the orchestral
playing, which, though very fine in
itself, just fails to hit the heights
in the biggest moments, e.g. the Sanctus,
where the trumpets’ first entry is tentative,
and the massive outburst that marks
the crux of the Libera me. I
put this down to a little cautiousness
on Robert Shaw’s part. I know it’s important
not to drown singers, but there are
places where a conductor must simply
let rip and damn the consequences, otherwise
the great moments risk going off at
half-cock. It’s not as bad as that,
but both Britten and Hickox are far
more terrifying at these defining moments.

Listening to the Proms
performance of the War Requiem
this week-end, I fell to wondering how
long it will be before Ian Bostridge
records the tenor part of the work,
maybe, as on this occasion, with Sir
Colin Davis and LSO/LSC. Interestingly,
Sir Colin conducted the second
ever performance of the piece, and his
admirers would surely love him to add
it to his discography.

That’s for the future;
but this current re-issue from the not-so-very-recent
past deserves a warm and enthusiastic
welcome back to the catalogue.

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